This invention generally relates to a hand-worn dispenser comprising a thin-walled glove equipped with a self-contained receptacle for storing dry particulate or liquid material intended to be dispensed from the glove in response to the wearer's squeezing or otherwise agitating the receptacle with his hand.
In accordance with the teaching of this invention, the rate of substance delivery may be selected and the directionality of substance flow outside the dispenser glove may be carefully controlled. Several glove dispensers and applicators which do not display such desirable features are disclosed in the prior patent art. For example, mittens intended for use as wash cloths for bathing purposes and having soap disposed in a water-permeable palm-located pocket are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 674,913 to Fike and in U.S. Pat. No. 1,766,365 to Weiss et al. Multilayered mitts or gloves for applying various substances contained between an inner skin protective layer and an outer porous layer are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 993,662 to Dueease (cleaning powder), U.S. Pat. No. 1,046,230 to Springhorn (powdered stove polish), U.S. Pat. No. 1,161,719 to Norton (skin massage tonic), and U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,604 to Holroyd (liquid herbicide).
Norton discloses separate liquid receptacles associated with each of the finger tips of a protective glove. U.S. Pat. No. 3,778,172 to Myren teaches a mitt displaying a liquid receptacle located generally centrally of the wearer's palm. The reservoir pockets of Fike and Springhorn cover the entire palm and undersides of the fingers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,699 to Pike shows a three-layered glove defining a perforated powder chamber extending from the wrist to the fingertips of the wearer.
The materials stored in the receptacles of the prior art mitts and gloves are usually discharged by squeezing the receptacles with the hand or by rubbing, pressing or impacting the glove or mitt directly against the object which receives the dispensed material. Discharged material passes through a permeable or porous area of the glove or through an array of small perforations provided for this purpose. Usually, material discharge from prior art glove applicators occurs over the greater part of the palmar side of the glove in an uncontrollable and uneven manner. Such eratic discharge of material is characteristic of the prior art and precludes the use of handworn dispensers in those application where a carefully controlled material discharge rate is desirable or essential. Moreover, none of the prior art devices suggest a dispensing glove structure capable of producing a highly directional stream of glove-contained substance for application to an object without the glove's coming into contact with the object.
Another structural and operational shortcoming of prior art glove dispensers and applicators is their lack of efficient means for filling and sealing a storage reservoir defined by the glove with a wide variety of kinds of materials such as, for example, skin lotion, pet shampoo, cleaning powder and liquid, semi-liquid burn medication, lubricating grease and oil, hair coloring and bleaching solution, insect repellant, adhesive, etc. This problem is exacerbated if the reservoir is to be filled with substances which are irritating to the skin, or substances which must be kept sterile or otherwise free from contamination, or substances which soil or discolor if spilled. If a glove is intended to be refilled from time to time by the glove user, the need for simple yet effective means to accomplish the filling function is expecially desirable.
While each of the abovecited glove dispensers is useful exclusively for applying either a dry powder (Dueease, Springhorn and Pike) or a liquid solution (Fike, Weiss et al, Norton, Holbroyd and Myren), none recognized the advantages of utilizing the same general glove configuration to dispense both dry and wet substances.